


You make the stars look closer

by smaragdbird



Category: Captain Marvel (2019)
Genre: F/F, Family Fluff, Marriage Proposal, Romantic Fluff, Sweet, Symbolic marriage/marriage ceremony because legal marriage is not permitted, Wedding Fluff, Weddings, surprise proposal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:49:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25534645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smaragdbird/pseuds/smaragdbird
Summary: Maria had plans - call in sick to work and enjoy a long weekend now that Carol is planetside for once.Then Monica announces that the Icelandic government has legalised same-sex partnerships.Somehow, this ruins her plans.
Relationships: Carol Danvers/Maria Rambeau
Comments: 15
Kudos: 49
Collections: Just Married Exchange 2020





	You make the stars look closer

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SassySnowperson](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SassySnowperson/gifts).



“Aunt Carol?” Monica asked, sounding way too awake while Maria was trading sleepy smiles with Carol over coffee and pancakes. 

“What’s up, Captain Trouble?” Carol asked back. She had returned to earth last night and Maria had already called in sick for work, hearing Fury’s eyeroll through the landline. Now she was waiting for Monica to leave for school so she could drag Carol back to bed.

“Are there planets where two women can marry?”

Maria inhaled her coffee and spent the next moments coughing. Carol, while thumbing her back carefully, replied, “Sure, a lot of them. Why are you asking?”

Monica held up the newspaper – ever since the aliens she had started reading it – and one of the headlines on the front page declared that same sex partnerships were now legally recognised in Iceland.

“Huh”, Carol said, by now gently rubbing Maria’s back. 

Perhaps she would drag her off to the sofa first, then to the bed.

“Are you and mom are going to get married in Iceland?” Monica asked. 

Maria thought it best to put her mug down before her daughter said anything else.

“Why would we get married in Iceland?” Carol asked.

“Because you can?” Monica replied as if it was obvious.

“Huh”, Carol repeated and looked at Maria. “Do you want to get married?”

Maria coughed once more to clear her throat before replying, “You’re asking me now?”

“Did I not ask you before?” Carol asked. There were still gaps in her memory though her tone implied that she was reasonably sure that she had not proposed marriage to Maria at any point in their past.

“Can’t say you did”, Maria replied, wondering what the hell she had put in her coffee this morning. Or perhaps it was the sleep deprivation.

“Would you like me to?”

“Would I like you to marry me or would I like you to ask me to marry you?” Maria asked.

From her place at the table, Monica was watching them with rapt attention as if this whole conversation wasn’t her fault in the first place.

“Either? Both?” Carol grinned at her. “We don’t have to get married in Iceland. I know about fifty different planets that would let us. One is made out of diamonds and – “She stood up abruptly. “I’ll be right back.”

With that she let through the kitchen door and vanished into the sky.

Maria, whose plans had been thoroughly thrashed at this point, glared at her daughter. “School. Now.”

/

Despite calling in sick earlier, Maria ended up going to work after all. Nothing to like getting her hands dirty with a bunch of proto-type space shuttles to take her mind off things. Fury asked her if there had been a space emergency and one of the Skrull scientists, Carlis, sent her sympathetic looks.

Monica called her in the early afternoon to ask if she could sleep over at a friend’s place, which Maria grudgingly allowed but only for a promise of lawn-mowing on the weekend. The prospect of returning to an empty house when she had hoped to spent a long weekend with Carol wasn’t appealing, but Maria had learned years ago to roll with the punches life threw at her.

Such as Icelandic policy ruining her weekend plans.

The house was dark and quiet when she returned, so Carol hadn’t come back yet. With a sigh, Mari unlocked the front door, threw her keys on the side table and was about to switch on the light when she saw two rows of small, glowing stones on the floor with rose petals scattered in between leading towards the back of the house.

The sheer romantic cheesiness of it made her smile despite how her day had gone so far. She followed the lights through the living room, the dining room and the patio until it led her to the back garden where a table stood beneath an alien looking glowing plant. Music was playing softly from a tape recorder and Carol stood next to the table, holding a bouquet of roses and wearing a blue dress. 

“Really?” Maria crossed her arms over her chest. 

“Really”, Carol grinned and held out her arm.

Behind her someone cleared her throat. “Your table is ready”, Monica said in a bad imitation of a French accent. She was wearing a black suit with a white shirt that she had definitely not owned this morning.

“We’re going to have words about your lies, young lady”, Maria threatened her good-naturedly as she took Carol’s arm and followed her daughter.

“Come on, Mom, I couldn’t spoil the surprise”, Monica protested. “Aunt Carol even got Grandma to cook for you.”

Carol had clearly gone all out to make up for this morning. There was bisque and her mom’s crawfish etouffee and beignets together with champagne and all the while Carol was looking at her as if Maria was the only thing she wanted to eat.

Well, later.

It wasn’t until after desert, when Monica had brought a fresh round of champagne and cleared the dishes from the table, that Carol got up from her seat and knelt down at Maria’s side.

Having learned from this morning, Maria avoided choking on her champagne.

“I know after everything we’ve been through, the Air-Force, raising Monica, saving the Skrull refugees and everything I’m forgetting to mention right now, this seems superfluous. And we don’t have to go to Iceland or Xion or any of the planets that would let us get married there. I love you. You’re the star that guides me home, the light house on a dangerous shore. Yesterday, today, tomorrow, until the galaxy grows dark that is what you mean to me and if I could I would rearrange the stars to spell it out across the night sky: I love you, Maria. Will you marry me?”

Maria hadn’t noticed when the tears had started falling but they had and she pressed a hand over her mouth before she could start sobbing.

“Yes”, she managed to croak out, rough and unromantic and real and Carol was laughing and crying at the same time as she slipped the ring onto Maria’s finger.

She more or less toppled Carol into the grass as she was kissing her, probably ruining her dress but who cared, and suddenly there were other people there. Her parents, her co-workers, Talos and his family, all led out by Monica.

“I’m in my work clothes”, Maria protested, wiping the tears from her eyes. 

“And you looking smokin’ in them as usual”, Carol whispered in her ear.

Maria wasn’t so love-struck as not to glare at her for making that comment in front of her parents.

“Don’t worry, mom”, Monica announced. “Aunt Carol and I bought a dress for you, too. It’s in your bed room.”

“Let me help you, baby”, her mother said and led her up to her bedroom. 

The dress was a backless, floor-length white gown that was see-through where it wasn’t tightly embroidered with silver beads. 

“Something new, something old, something borrowed, something blue”, her mother told her as she selected a pair of shoes and then took off her blue earrings and gave her to Maria. “You look beautiful, baby.”

“Thank you, mom.” Her eyes were red-rimmed from crying and there was motor oil beneath her fingernails and none of that mattered. “Are you and dad really okay with this?”

“Oh, honey, of course we are. Carol makes you happy, always has. The first time you called us after you met her, you sounded so happy. And your father and I were happy you had a friend who would have your back.”

“She did, didn’t she?” Maria felt like crying again. Being happy really brought out the waterworks in her.

“Do you know what she said today when she came to ask for our blessing?” Her mother asked, handing her a tissue. 

Maria shook her head.

“She said that you and Monica were the first people to make her feel loved and that she’s the luckiest woman in the universe because she found you not just once, but twice.”

“I’m lucky too”, Maria managed to get out. 

Her mother’s hands rested on her shoulders as their eyes met in the mirror. “You both are.”

/

When they came down, Maria saw that the back garden had been rearranged to look like a traditional wedding venue except for the glowing, alien plant that was still there. Monica and Talos’ daughter were scattering flowers while her father walked her down the aisle of a few garden chairs.

Then her eyes met Carol’s and everything else ceased to matter. 

Fury and Soren were officiating together and Maria must have said yes and I do at the right moments but she couldn’t recall much except for the light in Carol’s eyes. A light that was just for her.

They kissed and there was applause and cheering and hugs and Maria couldn’t remember ever feeling this happy since the first time she had held Monica in her arms.

“Better than a trip to Iceland?” Carol murmured while everyone was enjoying the cake Fury had brought and that was definitely not store-bought. 

“Better than the diamond planet you wanted to go to?” Maria asked back.

“That’s not really a wedding planet, it’s more of a honey moon planet”, Carol replied, pressing a kiss to her neck. 

“Fury did give me two weeks off as a wedding present”, Maria said as she closed her eyes and craned her neck, enjoying Carol’s lips on her skin.

“Your parents also offered to take Monica if you’d rather stay here”, Carol said, using Maria’s distraction to steal a bite from her slice of cake.

“We don’t have to decide right now, do we?” Maria asked. 

“Nope, you were foolish enough to marry me, now you’re stuck with me”, Carol grinned and bopped her nose. “Ready to leave this party and carry me over the threshold?”

“You’re stronger than me”, Maria pointed out. “You should carry me.”

“You’re taller”, Carol replied. “Besides, it’s your house and I am your wife.”

“I am your wife, too.”

“But I am taking your name”, Carol said triumphantly. 

“When did we decide that?”

Carol enveloped her in a bear hug. “Pleaaasssseeee?”

Now Maria finally knew where Monica got that from. “Fine. Guess I’ll carry you then Mrs Carol Rambeau.”

“Lead the way, Mrs Maria Rambeau.”

**Author's Note:**

> I have no clue if Americans follow any of the wedding traditions I used here. 
> 
> Also I had to google Lousiana food, which looks great and dispelled a lot of bias I had against American food, which I thought consisted solely of chips and burgers. 
> 
> So Iceland legalised same-sex partnerships in June 1996, which I thought fits the timeline.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed all this romantic cheese ^_^


End file.
